Kerry said the group is focused on the United Nations’ COP27 conference in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh…reports Asian Lite News
The United States and Egypt have unveiled a joint working group to prepare for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November, according to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, according to reports.
Kerry said the group is focused on the United Nations’ COP27 conference in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. He said the country has already begun its preparations for the meeting.
He said that other world tensions, including the ongoing Ukraine crisis, will not change the “reality of what is happening every day with respect to our climate,” and called the issue an international threat for all of us, media reported.
He said: “There are no politics in this. There is no ideology in this. This is not anything to do with some of the issues of concern for the US administration,” Kerry told reporters in Cairo along with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry.
Kerry was referring to conflicts in the Middle East and likely Egypt’s human rights record, which has drawn criticism from the U.S. and other western governments, it was reported.
The former U.S. senator and secretary of state, who landed in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, is expected to speak at the American University in Cairo on the future of international climate action in the leadup to COP27, the State Department said.
Kerry said that the U.S. was also working with Egypt on its own transition to a clean energy future.
In June, Kerry announced an increase in U.S. funding to help Egypt convert to solar energy and move away from fossil fuels, a major source of energy in the country of over 100 million people.
In recent years, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has taken steps to convert to renewables, seizing the advantage of the country’s optimal solar and wind conditions for energy harvesting, it was reported.